Strippers, Base Jumping, and Psychopathic CEOs

Why (Some) Psychopaths Make Great CEOs – Forbes
“A really interesting question is whether psychopathy can be a positive thing. Some psychologists would say yes, that there are certain attributes like coolness under pressure, which is sort of a fundamental positive. But Robert Hare would always say no, that in the absence of empathy, which is the definition in psychology of a psychopath, you will always get malevolence.”

Wildcatting: A Stripper’s Guide to the Modern American Boom Town – Buzzfeed
“It’s not the charm that brings dancers to Whispers, though. We’re in Williston, North Dakota, because oil companies are here working to extract the abundant natural resources of the region, and to do so, they require many men to work for them. Female company is far less abundant than the petroleum resources of the Bakken Formation. It is mobile, though, so here we come, the next sign of a boomtown after the oil and the men.”

Are There Too Many Managers? – BBC
“We’ve all become obsessed with management. Any self-respecting executive will now have an MBA, a shelf full of management books, and a vocabulary stuffed with “key deliverables” and “scalable solutions”. And yet we were able to get through the industrial revolution without having any “masters of business administration” at all. No-one thought of management then – the very word manager wasn’t widely applied to business until the 20th Century.”

‘It’s More Like a Suicide Than a Sport’ – The New York Times
“Le Gallou did not resist the changes in base jumping. Although he was not an expert pilot, the wingsuit revolution thrilled him. Yet the values he embodied — modesty, caution, patience — were being eroded by this new generation of wingsuit pilots, stimulated by speed and YouTube hits.”

Why YouTube Buffers – Ars Technica
“Why does online video have such problems? People may assume there are perfectly innocent causes related to their computers or to the mysterious workings of the Internet. Often, they’re correct. But cynical types who suspect their Internet Service Providers (ISPs) intentionally degrade streaming video may be right as well.”

How “One Weird Trick” Conquered the Internet – Slate
“Thankfully, Slate has allowed me to slake my curiosity, and yours. They gave me a loaner laptop, a prepaid debit card, and a quest: to investigate these weird tricks and report back to you.”

The Legend of the Oregon Trail – Mental Floss
“Rawitsch planned to add an element to advance players across the board—perhaps dice or instructional cards. But his roommates, who had taken a few programming classes, had a different idea. “What if we put this thing on a computer?” Heinemann wondered.”